This document discusses oral ability testing for language proficiency. It outlines various considerations for setting tasks, sample criteria, test formats, elicitation techniques, scoring procedures, and training for test administrators. The key points covered are setting clear objectives for testing comprehension and production, selecting appropriate content and text types for tasks, using multiple formats and testers to obtain a representative sample, carefully planning interviews and ensuring candidate comfort, and training scorers to reliably evaluate performance based on specified criteria.

1. Oral Ability Testing
Text: Arthur Hughes

2. Introduction
• Objective: successful interaction-
comprehension + production.
• No formal testing at early stages, only
informal observation for diagnosis

3. Setting the tasks
Content
• Operations:
• Expressing: requirements, opinions etc.
• Narrating: sequence of events
• Eliciting: information, direction, service etc.
• Directing: Ordering, instructing, advising etc.
• Reporting: descriptions, comments etc.

4. Content
Text type:
• face to face or telephone conversation as dialogue or
multi-participants
Addressees and topics:
• Not specified
Objective: to come as clear as possible about the
nature of ability to be tested

5. Sample Criteria
Criterial levels of performance (RSA)
Grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation are
peripheral but not excluded.
• Accuracy (intelligible communication)
• Appropriacy (clarify intention)
• Range (availability of structures or vocabulary)
• Flexibility (taking initiative, changing direction or
adapting to new topic)
• Size (simple to complex utterances)

6. Referred institutions
• RSA- Royal Society of Arts,
• ACTFL- American Council on the Teaching of
Foreign Languages,
• IRA- Interagency Language Roundtable,
• ARELS- Association of Recognized English
Language Schools

7. Format
Interview:
• Obvious but imbalanced in power.
• Asking for information is absent.
Interaction with peers:
• Common group discussion.
• One can be dominated by other. so careful selection
is necessary.

8. Format
Response to tape-recording:
• Reliable as same audio or video for everyone.
• Inflexible- no follow up of students' response.
Obtaining a sample
• Objective: For properly representing each
candidate's ability and reliable evaluation

9. Author’s Advice
1. Usually long and feasible (30 mins). For placement
test- short (5 mins)
2. Selecting a wide sample as a representative of a
specified content
3. Carefully planning an adaptive interview
4. Fresh starts: more than one format, more than one
tester, more items in a format, space and second
attempt.
5. Training for interviews with patience with various
materials

10. Author’s Advice
6. Using a second tester
7. L1 friendly topic
8. Using a quite room with good acoustics
9. Making candidates comfortable
10. Conducting according to collected information.
11. Giving enough talking time to candidates.

11. Elicitation techniques
Questions and requests for information:
• Avoid yes/no questions
• e.g. Can you tell me what you think of ...?
Picture:
• Single picture for description, multiple pictures lead
to narration

12. Elicitation techniques
Role play:
• For other language functions.
Interpreting:
• Simple specified tasks to test production and
comprehension.
• e.g. acting as an interpreter.

13. Elicitation techniques
Discussion:
• On a topic or to come to a decision with a partner.
• e.g. an upgrade to school facilities.
Tape-recorded stimuli:
• A description, response or simulation.
Imitation:
• Repetition of long sentences.

14. Techniques to be avoided
• Prepared monologue (stressful)
• Reading aloud (L2 speaker at a disadvantage)

15. Obtaining valid and reliable scoring
• Clearly recognizable and appropriate descriptions of
criterial levels are written
• trained scorers
• only relevant aspects of performance to be counted
• More than one scorer.

16. Proficiency descriptions
• Grammar
• Vocabulary
• Fluency
• Comprehension
• Holistic and analytic scoring. Use of balanced
weightings and conversion table.

17. Training of scores
• Target group: testers/ interviewers
• Objective: to improve accuracy of criterial levels,
pin point intention, identify contexts etc.
• Considering non-linguistic features and avoiding
unnecessary ones.

18. Conclusion
• More than one testers are essential for the sake of
scoring reliability.
• Requirements: time and effort
• Important consideration: Backwash